Starcraft 2 Released!

[Netrosis]

So it's the 27th here in Australia and I have received my copy of Starcraft 2.

Box Contents:
- Starcraft 2 (in a cardboard CD cover and CD-Key stickered on)
- Cute little notepad with pictures of WANTED Jim Raynor, on it.
- Quickstart Guide / Booklet
- Guest Passes
2x Starcraft II (14days / 7hrs playtime)
2x World of Warcraft

Overall the whole thing is very polished
(Everythin's shiny Capt'n!)

Installation:
Most installations you'll pop on and go walk away while your DVD drive grinds away for a few minutes. The installer for Starcraft 2 is pretty awesome. It's been such a long time since Starcraft, that there is a nice animated comic style thing that goes along with the installer to get you up to speed with the whole Starcraft happenings.
It takes a while to install (it requires 12GB of space).

In the case of the region here (South East Asia), we have the new,
http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/ website replacing the Starcraft 2 website.

A link in the installer will take you there to activate your game and attach it to your Battle.net account.

Midnight Releases:
For those of you who still have yet to go to your midnight releases, the questionnaire questions get pretty complex quite quick. I suggest refreshing your memory and function of the units and buildings for units in Starcraft 2, and briefly peruse some details about the history of the game's characters, and the Console franchise that never came to be.

I won at my EB Games store, and got a very nice SteelSeries QCK Starcraft 2 branded game pad. They're a bit pricey (AUD$29), and the quality is nice, but not something I'd fork out that amount for.

Questions:
If you're on the fence about the game, feel free to ask questions in this thread and I'll try and answer them for you. I hope to keep this thread nice and clean and discussion about Starcraft II, and the game itself, please don't ***** about how much you hate Blizzard/Starcraft or think that other RTS's are better.

The quality of the game is outstanding. For people like myself who appreciate the mountains of artwork and media efforts placed into this game, you won't be disappointed.
I'll try and post screenshots and photos, etc. But for now I'm off to play the campaign.

Oh, and remember to keep any spoilers in spoiler tags!

 

[Irridium]

It'll be released in about 12-15 hours here in the states, depending which time zone you live in. And I'm happy, not because of the game, but because tomorrow's my birthday, and I don't have to do the midnight launch event.

Oh man you have no idea how amazing that is...

Anyway, enjoy your game.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Another AUS player here, installing it right now.

 

[Netrosis]

I've played quite a lot of missions now in the Campaign, I can say it's well executed.

You don't just jump from 1 mission to the other, there is a lot of story-building that goes on between different parts of the missions. The awful "Choose one or the other", and there's no clear outcome of consequence.

Spoiler: choices I made

I decided to destroy the civilians and also to help Tosk so far. It'll be interesting to play the campaigns again on hard and make the other choices and grab all the achievements.

The story itself I'm finding a little difficult to follow. I understand the basic ideas, but some of the character nuances leave me feeling like I should know more about the relationship between characters.

Also, I wish there was more stuff on Matt Horner.

As for the Single Player Campaign itself, there are 29 missions, and (on normal) these have ranged from 15-30mins for me. I usually don't rush stuff and carefully do all of the objectives.

Also, if you are disconnected from Battle.net, you can still play, but you won't get achievements. I ended up re-completing 3 missions because of that. >:O
Also, the difference between "normal" and "hard" is very noticeable.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Warp gates are awesome, love the chronoboost mechanic too.

 

[UnusualStranger]

OK, I have a question.


I have already heard that one has to connect to the internet and register with blizzard to play the single player game.
Does anyone know if this is true? Cause I don't want to depend on someone elses servers for my single player experience.....

 

[microhive]

hi guys just wondering can i install the game without cd key?or play single campain without cd key?
i have download full game from torrent...just wanna try out single campain before i go into eb and buy real copy

Sure but you need someone, who owns StarCraft II, to activate the client once, and play as a guest, once you've downloaded the pay-later-free-to-download-digital version.

OK, I have a question.


I have already heard that one has to connect to the internet and register with blizzard to play the single player game.
Does anyone know if this is true? Cause I don't want to depend on someone elses servers for my single player experience.....

You only need to authenticate, using an account with a StarCraft II license, once after installation when you enter the game. It's just a weak protection against novices. Once that is sorted out you can play in guest mode which excludes you from any online benefits.

 

[IxionIndustries]

OK, I have a question.


I have already heard that one has to connect to the internet and register with blizzard to play the single player game.
Does anyone know if this is true? Cause I don't want to depend on someone elses servers for my single player experience.....

They said you only have to connect with it once.

Then you can go in an "Offline mode".

I just hope it works better than when I try to play Half-Life 2 on Steam in "Offline mode".

 

[Last Bullet]

I saw the "2x Starcraft II (14days / 7hrs playtime)" without noticing the words "Guest Passes" and completely freaked out. Oh, man, that was bad.

Anyway, I'm jealous happy to hear you got it. I got the Collector's off GameStop, but didn't pay the extra $10 for overnight shipping, so I gotta wait up to three days. Possibly the worst decision I've made in a while.

 

[UnusualStranger]

You only need to authenticate, using an account with a StarCraft II license, once after installation when you enter the game. It's just a weak protection against novices. Once that is sorted out you can play in guest mode which excludes you from any online benefits.

OK. Simple protection I can handle. I don't much care for online after being in the beta. So thanks very much!

They said you only have to connect with it once.

Then you can go in an "Offline mode".

I just hope it works better than when I try to play Half-Life 2 on Steam in "Offline mode".

They said?

Well, Steam needs to connect every once in a while to work. This is not steam, so I hope that I don't have to authenticate every time. Cause that would be a negative for me getting this game.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm not sure I'll buy it on launch. I'll pick it up if I can find a decent price. I'm merely curious, not overly desperate to get it.

It looks and sounds good from what I've seen and heard though!

 

[Lyri]

So it's the 27th here in Australia and I have received my copy of Starcraft 2.

Box Contents:
- Starcraft 2 (in a cardboard CD cover and CD-Key stickered on)
- Cute little notepad with pictures of WANTED Jim Raynor, on it.
- Quickstart Guide / Booklet
- Guest Passes
2x Starcraft II (14days / 7hrs playtime)
2x World of Warcraft

Is this your collectors edition!?
If so, what did you pay?

 

[megs1120]

Awesome, getting it after work tomorrow! Twelve years of waiting, I can't believe it's here!

 

[peduncle]

i got the very first copy of SC2 sold at my local store... but i'm not playing it for a week or so

 

[IxionIndustries]

They said?

Well, Steam needs to connect every once in a while to work. This is not steam, so I hope that I don't have to authenticate every time. Cause that would be a negative for me getting this game.

Uh-huh. The T.V. people.

They said that it would only require a one-time activation process through Battle.net.

Of course, I'm guessing your one of those source-hungry hooligans, so here, have a link:

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/guide/install-guide

Or maybe two?

http://www.newgamenetwork.com/news/56/starcraft-2-requires-onetime-online-activation/

 

[UnusualStranger]

Uh-huh. The T.V. people.
They said that it would only require a one-time activation process through Battle.net.
Of course, I'm guessing your one of those source-hungry hooligans, so here, have a link:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/guide/install-guide
Or maybe two?
http://www.newgamenetwork.com/news/56/starcraft-2-requires-onetime-online-activation/

Seems you caught my skepticism quite well! Thank you very much for the sources. It puts me at ease.

Thank you again!

 

[Reep]

One of the things i most enjoyed was messing around in multiplayer against a bot and making two huge armies go against each other.

So im pretty much asking, are there cheats and custom options in multiplayer?

 

[CmdrGoob]

So it's the 27th here in Australia and I have received my copy of Starcraft 2.

Box Contents:
- Starcraft 2 (in a cardboard CD cover and CD-Key stickered on)
- Cute little notepad with pictures of WANTED Jim Raynor, on it.
- Quickstart Guide / Booklet
- Guest Passes
2x Starcraft II (14days / 7hrs playtime)
2x World of Warcraft

Is this your collectors edition!?
If so, what did you pay?

Nah, that's just the standard box, same as I got.